March 2011

03/29/2011

Many readers have been asking me for more specific information about which drawing pens I use and what their different characteristics. I'll get into more specifics later in this post but here are four highlights about my use of drawing pens:

1. I draw with two basic types of pens: a) water based (non-permanent) ink pens and b) alcohol based (permanent) ink pens.

2. I draw on paper with water based pens and I draw on mylar with alcohol based ink pens.

3. I combine alcohol based markers with water based ink pens so as not to smear the linework.

Below is an explanation of each pen along with a “test page” in which I drew the same subject using different pens and compared the results.

SketchUp Model View. For this drawing exercise, I traced over an aerial perspective from a Google SketchUp model I constructed of a residential development. I printed the scene on bond paper and added some trees with a Chartpak AD marker.

Pentel Sign Pen

Pentel Sign Pen. The broad fiber tip on this water based pen is ideal for quick sketching large drawings without a high level of detail. I drew over the SketchUp scene on tracing paper which resulted in heavy linework with a general lack of fine detail in the buildings, windows and trees. The drawing was too small to effectively use the Pentel Sign pen.

Pilot Fineliner Pen

Pilot Fineliner Pen. Similar to Pentel Sign pen with a solid black ink and fiber tip, this pen was a perfect size to reproduce the detail of the buildings, shadows and landscaping. I drew on tracing paper and was very pleased with the line weight, detail and quick action of the pen.

Staedtler Lumocolor F Pen Comparison. The two drawings above were from two different types of Staedtler Lumocolor F pens. Notice the different tips from the closeup photograph. The standard F pen (upper image) was very wet and very difficult to capture any detail on mylar. The thick linework is too rough and unacceptable compared with the other pen options. The lower image was drawn with the 318 F Refillable pen and produced a beautiful sharp line on the mylar. The 318 F pen is a great fast drying pen for use on mylar and erases quite easily with a moistened eraser.

Pigma Micron 02 Pen

Pigma Micron 02 Pen. This permanent ink pen is manufactured with different tip sizes to produce varied line weights. Categorized as a “technical pen”, this permanent ink pen produced a consistent line width on mylar but was much slower to dry than the Staedtler pens. Notice the smudging at the lower portion of my drawing. When drawing on mylar with this pen, I advise having several spare pens around as the hard finish of matte mylar will wear away the pen point over a short period of time.

Final Aerial Perspective. This cropped drawing was from a larger 30”x60” aerial perspective I drew on mylar using the Pigma Micron 02 Pen. Knowing that I was going to color the entire drawing, I outlined the architecture and trees, and applied very minimal shading to the overall image. The completed line drawing was digitally copied onto presentation bond paper and colored.

Final Colored Perspective. I used a combination of Chartpak AD markers, Copic markers and Prismacolor pencils to illustrate the forest, residences and overall landscape.

03/25/2011

I have been fortunate to have worked on very large master planning projects and want to explain some basic methods for quickly visualizing urban spaces using simple Google SketchUp modeling and hand drawing. These models and illustrations were made during a four-day charrette visualizing one of many different conceptual planning diagrams for a new city.

Even though the mega scale of this project is greater than a project you’ve been used to doing, the basic process can be adapted to whatever scale project you are working with. For example, if you are master planning several blocks in an existing downtown, you can follow the same steps in visualizing your ideas. I involve three basic steps: 1)Plan, 2)Model and 3)Sketch. Here is how it works:

Large Scale SketchUp Model. This view is of a basic SketchUp massing model that I constructed of a proposed city core. Details of the model are shown in several images below.

Start with a Plan. The first vision of the city core was developed in a plan diagram that illustrated basic city blocks, connections, open space and water. The hand drawn plan was photographed with a digital camera and the jpeg imported into a SketchUp model. Once resized to scale, I constructed a SketchUp model base over the image establishing the basic radial street pattern and individual building sites.

Simple Massing Model. This may look complicated but the buildings are simple shapes and blocks, although there happens to be a lot of them! I focused on constructing the central core and left the outer blocks without any 3D development. Each tower of the core has horizontal lines representing floors. This detail enabled me to keep track of building heights and especially understand the great scale of the urban spaces. The entire model was left uncolored with the exception of the canal.

Compose the SketchUp Scene. Knowing that time was limited in the four-day charrette, I selected only four views to illustrate - one eye level view at the canal and three low aerial views of the central core, a large open space park and the medium density outer residential neighborhoods. Once the scenes were selected, I exported the views as jpeg’s and printed them 11”x17” in color.

Red Pencil Mockup. I taped a sheet of tracing paper over the print and sketched in detail for the building facades, central park layout, trees, bridges and entourage. Once the detail was established in pencil, I then taped a second sheet of trace over the mockup and completed what I call an “overlay and trace” drawing.

Final Colored Drawing. All of the drawings were sized 11”x17” so I could easily scan them. The completed drawing was made with a Pilot Fineliner pen. Notice the very rough delineation style of the drawing. I drew enough detail to understand scale by inserting simple shapes for cars, people, boats and trees. The building facades are quickly delineated with “zig zag” linework, overlapping corners and multiple line edges. Using a limited set of Chartpak AD marker colors, I highlighted the central park and water element. Background buildings are each colored with a light brown and dark blue marker for the glass areas. The completed image took no more than 3-4 hours to produce! Suggestion: keep your detail simple and loosely drawn.

Eye-level Canal View. This model view and overlay drawing represent a more closeup view of the canal, pedestrian promenade and bridge. The drawing was easily created from the SketchUp model, which established the perspective view, scale (notice the floor-to-floor horizontal lines) and basic shadows.

Central Park View. Developed from the basic Sketchup model, I made a red pencil mockup of the circular park and large forest of trees. I changed the diamond pattern of the trees to a more linear pattern as you can see comparing the red pencil drawing with the final colored image.

Medium Density Residential Neighborhood. This final image was illustrated to visualize the large area of medium density housing. The dense grid of buildings opens onto a major vehicular roadway and transit line.

03/22/2011

The process of visualizing master planning and architectural projects involves many steps between an early idea and the completed presentation rendering. As concepts are developed, quick character sketches are an effective tool for communicating visual information about the place, landscaping, scale, color and overall design.

My good friend Frank Gratton, AIA has been communicating design ideas for many years with quickly generated hand drawn sketches. Frank often begins visualizing with extremely rough thumbnail sketches, then developing them as more refined drawings. Many of his images are used as the basis for presentation renderings that are created by professional illustrators.

Frank’s drawings below are from a master planning/architectural concept for an entertainment and golf resort in Asia. The development was based on a “Southern California” theme with all amenities connected by waterways and pedestrian paths. All of his drawings were eventually developed as formal presentation renderings and combined with precedent photographs to communicate the overall theme.

Frank Gratton, AIA in his office with drawings from different "in-progress"projects.

California Boardwalk. This 8”x12” ink drawing on trace reinforced the pedestrian connections to the waterway and to the hotel complex in the background via shuttle boat. Antique sea planes added character to the setting. Notice how Frank populated the drawing with over 30 people to give it scale and an “active” look.

Hotel Amenities. These two images represented different relationships to water. One featured a wedding gazebo overlooking the lake and guest shuttle boat. The other created a nostalgic hotel lobby overlooking the swimming pool. Classic arches, colors and details reinforced the Southern California hospitality design.

Golf Course Villas. Frank developed this 2-point perspective showing residential villas overlooking the golf course. He elevated the buildings on stone bases and made the trees more transparent to promote views of the course from the units.

Evening Restaurant View. This dramatic 7”x12” concept drawing was developed as a night view with dark background colors and bright colors to represent lighting. Again, Frank reinforced the water theme with reflections and placed the restaurant in front of the hotel to establish the location and relationship with the overall architectural theme. Note that Frank highlighted the lighting with a florescent orange colored pencil!

Golf Course Views. These two drawings were developed to emphasize the connection between the golf course and waterways. All of the drawings that Frank produced for this project were composed with a consistent proportion and created on standard tracing paper with a Staedtler Lumocolor pen and colored with Chartpak AD markers. Frank used a limited color marker selection.

Resort Hotel. This important view of the hotel was composed to establish the foreground waterway, pedestrian connections, exterior swimming pool amenity and the overall massing of the hotel architecture. Frank used pink building colors to reinforce a Southern California classic hotel theme.

Process Drawing. As Frank developed his sketches, some were modified after he had generated the drawing. With this drawing of the amusement park gateway, he added “drawing patches” to include more foreground people and an antique sea plane. Once scanned, the patches disappeared. (see below)

Amusement Park Gateway. In the heart of the development was an amusement park. Frank composed this drawing to show multiple stories - the waterside cafe, entrance feature to the park, graphic signage, ferris wheel, sea plane and observation deck. He illustrated over 15 people to give the scene scale and activity.

03/18/2011

If you’ve ever been under an extreme deadline to produce visual material for a project and have struggled with how to create a quick perspective, consider the option of recycling previously drawn material into a new image! This process saves a tremendous amount of time by utilizing existing perspective, scale, entourage and composition.

I’ve effectively used this method for early conceptual designs involving master planning projects - the rapid visualization of big ideas in design charrettes. I would find an existing drawing that came somewhat close to what I was envisioning, then integrate basic elements (perspective, scale, composition) into a new drawing specific to my project. The examples below are from international projects I helped visualize with my planning team.

Village Canal Walk. Architect friend David Klages, FAIA had created a pen and ink line drawing for an earlier project and gave me permission to “recycle” his drawing into a new perspective showing a San Antonio style river walk. I copied the basic drawing composition and concentrated on developing the canal edges with pedestrian activities and entourage. The site location of the new project had no tropical plants so I avoided tracing the palm trees. The process of turning an existing drawing into a new one took very little time!

Transit Station. Recycled from another of David’s perspectives, I modified the interior spaces to create a multi-level transit building. Notice how I maintained the basic interior proportions and perspective while completely changing the architectural details and structure. This process really saved me a lot of time. My ink line drawing on trace was copied onto bond paper and colored with Chartpak AD markers.

Middle Eastern Souk. I worked with another talented architect Frank Gratton to develop a detailed interior perspective of an interior marketplace in Dubai. Frank found an illustration from a marketing brochure and used the basic composition as inspiration for the new drawing. He recycled the (eye-level) one-point perspective and completely changed the design. Frank scanned his drawing and sent it to me for final illustration.

Final Line Drawing. I printed Frank’s drawing at approximately 11” high and then expanded the drawing edges to illustrate cafe and retail activities. I added a great amount of detail to the drawing showing materials, decorative fixtures, railings and structure. My drawing was first developed with a red pencil mockup on tracing paper and finally traced onto Mylar with a Staedtler Lumocolor pen.

Final Colored Print. I copied the 11”x17” original artwork onto presentation bond paper and colored the print with Chartpak AD markers and Prismacolor pencils. Much of the shadowing and material finishes were created with the colored pencils. Yellow pencil color enhanced the sunlight cast into the space from overhead windows and the artificial lighting on columns and at the retail spaces. The final image was scanned in color at 300dpi and used in a concept design presentation.

03/15/2011

The process of communicating concept design ideas can involve a number of visualization techniques such as physical models, diagrams, sketches, 3D computer models and your typical plans and elevations. When designing large and complex planning projects, it may be necessary to develop design concepts for many different areas within the proposed development. I worked on numerous large master plans in the Middle East and found a very effective method of quickly visualizing my ideas with what I call “SketchUp Composite Drawings”.

This process involves quickly generated Google Sketchup model views that have minimal detail - much like stage set models that I discuss in my book Drawing Shortcuts Second Edition. Once the SketchUp scene is saved, I then print the image and hand draw over it adding much more detail, color, entourage, landscaping and character. The two are composite scanned together and shown in concept design presentations. The images below are of six drawings that were part of a 15-image set of quick sketches that told the story of a very large development.

Master SketchUp Model. All of the SketchUp scenes and drawings were derived from sub-models that were expanded versions of this overall massing model built to show the proposed development. Once I identified a specific view, I added more detailed model components and architectural character to the scene.

Canal Scene. The SketchUp model was developed with waterside steps and bridges along with entourage. I printed the image 11"x17” and traced over the print with a Pentel Sign pen on lightweight tracing paper. I colored directly onto the original line drawing with Chartpak AD markers and Prismacolor pencils. The final drawing was scanned with the print beneath which resulted in a “composite” drawing that revealed much of the SketchUp model visible below the hand drawing.

Waterfront Views. Both of these perspectives were created using the same method of drawing over a SketchUp model view. Notice how much detail was added in the hand drawing compared with what originally was built in the model. By composite scanning a hand drawing over a SketchUp model view, all of the shadows, sky, water color and building facades are visible in the final image.

Enhance the View. The original SketchUp model did not have any detail showing the water’s edge. I delineated the buildings but spent most of my effort drawing the pedestrian pathway, canal and vegetation.

Fine Tune Your Model Views. Whether you are visualizing a roof top swimming pool or a public building, carefully establish your model view by adjusting your SketchUp model's camera focal length, shadow setting, entourage placement and height of the camera. Both of these model views are at eye-level to create a more up-close and realistic impression of the subject.

Roof Terrace Drawing. This image expanded the SketchUp model view with more detail added to the building facades and landscaping. I easily traced the people and furniture directly from the model. When composite scanning a hand drawing over a SketchUp view, you can add a second sheet of trace beneath your drawing to lighten the model view and show less of the computer image.

Public Terrace. This drawing has minimal detail in the foreground as it was intended to highlight the pair of commercial buildings and the small tower elements in front of them. The composite scan faded the building facades in the background creating an illusion of distance and space. Bright gold and red colors emphasized the feature commercial buildings.Notice how the dark blue sky contrasts against the white facades of the buildings.

Marina Concept Visualization. The SketchUp concept model I built depicted a proposed marina development. The image formed the basis for my composite drawing which the client approved and eventually used to generate a photo-realistic rendering of the marina. This process of “storyboarding” ideas with both 3D SketchUp models and hand drawn overlays is a very effective method for quickly communicating ideas to clients without time consuming modeling or high end rendering. (Photo realistic rendering by Crystal CG)